


14 Years With Cora King

by clizziem



Category: Original Work
Genre: Character Death, Drug Addiction, Siblings, Substance Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 10:56:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16742662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clizziem/pseuds/clizziem
Summary: For fourteen years, Cora has had to watch her older brother's addiction to drugs consume him and hurt their family. Even though the past fourteen years have been full of scary and horrible events, three ones specifically stand out to her.One when she was five.One when she was twelve.And finally when she's nineteen.





	14 Years With Cora King

**Author's Note:**

> So this is possibly the saddest thing I've ever written. Originally, this was for a class assignment but I ended up really loving it so here. 
> 
> I think the tags cover everything in it, this is about someone struggling with drug addiction told through the point of view of their younger sister.

**5**

There were some things about living with Gran and Gramp that Cora loved. Gran was always careful not to spoil her, maybe give her hand a gentle slap if she reached for the cookie jar one too many times, but Gramp would sneak her something. She had her own room, at home she’d have to share with Nickie. She would always walk to school with a good lunch, Gran would sometimes put two Cuties in the paper brown bag. 

But there were parts that weren’t as fun. Cora didn’t like to tell people that she lived with her grandparents. Maybe because it was only, what was the word Daddy used? Temper-Temporary. Not forever. Just until Nickie got better. 

“It’s not forever.” She’d whisper, trying to smile even though she knew the question that was coming next. 

What’s wrong with Nickie?

That’s the part she hated most, other than being away from Mommy and Daddy. 

Cora didn’t know. 

Nickie had been...Nickie. Nickie who watched cartoons with her, Nickie who put her silly little drawings from preschool up on the fridge if she couldn’t wait to show Mommy or Daddy, Nickie who would read her  _Ramona’s World_  before she went to bed. Then something happened. He started needing more alone time, he’d yell at Mommy and Daddy, he’d disappear all night.

Cora didn’t know what changed him. 

**12**

“Cora, stop!” Nick’s voice boomed through the house like a rumble of thunder. His bloodshot eyes narrowed at her as she reached for the phone. 

There it was again. 

That wild desperation, a dangerous cocktail of anger and fear. 

Cora shook her head and picked up the phone. “I have to tell them.” She snapped back. Nick fumed and stepped closer to her.

“Cora, put the damn phone down or I swear to God-” His red eyes shone like flames against his dark skin. It was okay. Cora knew her eyes must look similar, even if her eyes were red from crying and Nick’s were red from whatever drug he was currently on.

“No.” Was all she said in reply. Maybe she should have said more. Or maybe nothing at all would have been better. Just put the damn phone back, Cora.

Nick was across the room in a second.

He and Cora wrestled for the phone, a long string of beeps from numbers being unintentionally pushed screamed at them to stop fighting. Even though Cora had been swimming since third grade, Nick was nineteen and stronger. He body-slammed Cora in the side and tore the phone from her grasp. Cora stumbled against the wall and watched as Nick threw the phone onto the floor. It exploded in a combustion of plastic, copper wires, and double A batteries. Cora was breathing so heavily that a section of her curly hair was moving like she was outside. Nick was panting, too. He reminded her of Toothless from  _How to Train Your Dragon_   _2_ after he kills Stoic the Vast. That horrible, vacant, violent look in Nick’s eyes mirrors Toothless’ mind-controlled eyes. He was angry. She was scared.

Finally, Nick looked up at Cora. He  _sneered_ at her. “Guess they won’t find out now.” Cora had to look away, down to the mess of what used to be a phone. 

“I-I’ll tell them.” 

Nick smirked and walked toward her, slowly pushing her against the wall. “I don’t think you will, Cora. You’ll regret it otherwise.”

Nick turned away gracefully, or as gracefully as he could manage anymore, and headed toward the stairs. 

“Is-that-more important to you than I am?” Cora whispered. 

Nick didn’t hear her.

**19**

It breaks Cora’s heart that there aren’t more people at Nick’s funeral. She knows Nick didn’t have many friends, and the ones he did have met the same fate he eventually did. Dead on the bathroom floor with a needle in their arm and a thin line of white powder under their nose. Gran and Gramp are here, Mom and Dad, Karina- Cora’s best friend, Aunt Laura and Uncle Red, Uncle Tom and Uncle Jamie, the cousins-Sadie and Kyle, but that’s kind of it. She knows it’s also sort of Nick’s fault there aren’t more people here to be sad he’s gone. 

What a weird thing, a funeral without a chance of seeing a smile. 

No one can dare to smile when someone has died the way Nick died. 

Cora can hear what the pastor is saying but she can also feel her head shaking. Every word is a lie. Nick didn’t overcome anything. Yeah, sure he tried. Over and over and over and over. Every single time he failed. Cora feels a rough, large hand slide into hers. She looks up and sees Dad. A single tear rolls down his cheek. 

Cora had never seen her father cry before. 

“I know.” He says, barely audible. Cora knows he means he knows this priest is lying, too. “He’s trying to spare them.”

“Spare them? Our family knew, right?” Cora replies, matching Dad’s volume. 

“Well, yes. But maybe if they hear stuff like this, they’ll feel a little better. They don’t know everything that you, your mother, and I know.”

Cora almost snorts. “Bullshit.” She whispers. Dad squeezes her hand. 

When the pastor finishes, everyone begins to walk back to cars. Karina stays with Cora. 

“Are you ready?” Karina asks softly, gently, gently. Cora unwraps her arms around her abdomen, her coat falling open. 

“Just a second.” Cora says and steps toward the open grave. The cherry wood coffin is decorated with white peonies and fern leaves. Cora reaches inside her inner coat pocket and her numb fingers find the beaten pages of a paperback children’s book. She gingerly pulls  _Ramona’s World_ out of her coat. She kneels in front of the hole her brother will be laid in forever. 

“Here’s a little something to remember me by.” Cora murmurs and drops the book on the coffin. “I’m sorry I can’t be sadder about losing you, but...” She trails off for a second, a small montage of memories flashing before her eyes. 

Nick walking her to her first day of kindergarten.

Nick at her fourteenth birthday party shooting her with a water gun. 

Nick laying in the sunlight by the pond on a family picnic.

Nick’s red, red eyes.

Nick’s door slamming shut. 

Nick’s angry voice bellowing through the halls.

Cora sighs and stands up.

“I guess I lost you long ago.” 


End file.
